Armies of Liberation

Dont Click the Link! GAhhhh, its a picture of a foot and only a foot remains.

So the question is of course is this Khaled al Dhayani a relative of Hamza al Dhayani, the purported driving instructor for the 2007 Marib tourists’ murderer and later the main suspect in the Embassy attack but who said in an interview that the security forces orchestrate some attacks themselves.

Funny how this DNA test took a few weeks when sometimes in Yemen the results come back in hours.

al Motamar: Yemen identifies identity of Sana’a Airport suicidal operation perpetrator
Wednesday, 08-April-2009
Almotamar.net – Yemen Interior Ministry announced Wednesday it has identified identity of the perpetrator of the suicidal terrorist operation committed on the road leading to Sana’a Airport on 18 last March. The Ministry depended on results of DNA examinations.

Official source at the Interior Ministry has said,” Security authorities identified the implementer of the terrorist suicidal operation on the road leading to Sana’a Airport on 18 last March. “

The official source added in the light of DNA examinations of remains of the suicidal bomber security authorities learned that perpetrator of the criminal operation is the terrorist Khalid Abdullah al- Dhayani, 20 years old.

The source pointed out that the Interior Ministry enlisted the name of that terrorist in the list of names and photos of 12 persons of the security-wanted and circulated it on 19 last March among security apparatuses and transmitted by the media. That measure by the ministry came after investigations had disclosed that terrorist elements affiliated to al-Qaeda were able to attract and deceive them and driving them to commit suicide by preparing them to implement terrorist operations to damage interests of the homeland and the citizens.

Yemen Times has a good round of of the dates:

Last January, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula announced moving its leadership to Yemen. This announcement raised wide controversy about the goal of taking such a step. Consequently, what is the new strategy that the organization can follow?

Two months after that announcement, tongues were yet again wagging about Al-Qaeda. On March 15, it was officially announced that a suicide bomber blew up himself in an attack against a group of tourists from South Korea while they were on a mountain overlooking the historical city of Shibam in Hadramout.

According to an official source in the Ministry of Interior, the blast that took place at a quarter to six o’clock in the evening of that day claimed the lives of four South Korean, tourists including two women. Two other men and three women were wounded, and a Yemeni tourist guide died after he was taken to hospital. Another Yemeni was also wounded. The question that emerged was: Why were South Korean tourists targeted this time?

Does this mean that Al-Qaeda has widened the circle of its targets as it is no longer restricted to targeting Western, in particular U.S., interests? Or does the organization have information about Korean-U.S. cooperation in economic, military and intelligence projects in the region?

The U.S. paid great attention to the issue, and John Brennan, Deputy National Security Advisor to the U.S. President, paid a visit to Yemen the day after the incident, on March 16. The Yemeni official media reported that Brennan handed over a letter to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh from U.S. President Barack Obama. The letter focused on mutual relations, cooperation and partnership between the two friend countries, including cooperation in security and combating terrorism, in addition to the situation of Yemeni inmates in Guantanamo and recent developments that concern the two countries.

Since “recent developments” are the intention all the news, it is certain that the man came accompanied by a large team of intelligence and security personnel to investigate the recent incidents and supervise the ongoing investigations. He also came to give the Yemeni security apparatuses a new dose on how to deal with such issues within the context of the security and intelligence cooperation between the two countries and combating terrorism, according to the Yemeni official version.

Of course, on the second day of investigations, an official source in the Ministry of Interior said that primary results to the Yemeni investigation “revealed that the blast was a terrorist act and resulted from a suicide bombing carried out by an element of Al-Qaeda who used explosives to blow up himself.”

On March 18, three days after the incident, an official source in the Ministry of Interior announced that “a suicide bomber blew himself up with an explosive belt in the morning of that day on the road that leads to Sana’a International Airport. The source affirmed that no one was killed in the incident except the attacker whose body was scattered.” The unofficial news confirmed that the attack targeted a procession of the South Korean security delegation which was participating in the investigations into the attack against the South Korean tourists in Shibam.

Definitely, these details point to a security defect that reflects the weak capabilities of the so-called counter-terrorism apparatuses. At the same time, they reflect the Yemeni government’s lack of credibility with regards to its announcements and practices. At times, the government’s declarations that terrorism is under control -with a high level of transparency- hasn’t prevented press interviews with leaders believed to be wanted by security. At other times, events reveal that Yemeni security apparatuses lack the simplest means of protection and surveillance.

The confessions of Mohammed Atiq Al-Awfi broadcast by Saudi television late last March have confirmed the weak performance of Yemeni security as the man continued to work in Yemen within activities of Al-Qaeda. He was wanted by security but when he decided to abandon the organization, he gave himself in to Saudi authorities directly. The role of the Yemeni security apparatuses in this context was only as “a witness who saw nothing.”

It is normal that the reader is confused when confronted with both the authorities’ failure to protect the South Korean tourists from that blast, and their swiftness in recognizing the attacker’s identity and obtaining information about him, including the letter that he supposedly wrote to his mother. It is also normal that the reader is confused between security’s speed in recognizing the Shibam attacker, but not the man who blew himself up on the road to Sana’a airport.

The reader might have wanted a clear answer from the official source about the reason for using an explosive against tourists in Shibam, and an explosive belt in the airport road to attack a procession that didn’t pass at that time.

As the Arab saying goes, “The people’s woes are the benefits of other people.” The media reported that Yemen had asked South Korea to provide it with aid to combat terrorism. This might aim to hit more than two birds with one stone. On the one hand, it is an opportunity to market the terrorism issue on many levels. On the other hand, it is an attempt to cover up the negligence that occurred. It is as if Yemen wants to say to Korea, “We don’t have the capabilities to deal with terrorism and need your assistance.”

The demand and its associated disclosures might be a beginning of Yemeni-Korean cooperation to assign new responsibility to combat terrorism to reduce the major U.S. effort, as a sign of the Obama administration’s new initiatives. Connected to more than one party, Yemen is under more pressure to fulfill its promises, since the Americans have often expressed their lack of trust in Yemen’s seriousness in this field, which have adversely affected Yemen’s reputation, regionally and internationally.

Hence, the announcement of the Ministry of the Interior on March 25 that “security apparatuses were able to arrest six elements affiliated with an Al-Qaeda terrorist cell which was entrusted to carry out a dangerous terrorist criminal act,” might have aimed to recover consideration.

It might have been an attempt to prove its capabilities to others as the source made clear that the two last explosive operations that targeted Korean tourists in Shibam and the Korean procession in Sana’a were within that plan which targeted executing 12 terrorist acts against oil constructions, foreign interests and tourists in Yemen. This announcement didn’t reveal where and how these elements were arrested and whether one of them was included in the list of those wanted by security and whose pictures were published in official media.

In this context, the press release that Al-Qaeda issued on March 17 claiming responsibility for the attack against the Korean tourists was important. It should be taken into consideration that this release came 13 days after the attacks, which may mean that the government and Al-Qaeda are exchanging their papers.

The facts rely on investigation and the results that trials will come up with!